Short hops and hard knocks with Red Sox beat writer Ian Browne.

The perfect match

As the Red Sox unveiled their new slugger today in perhaps the franchise’s most impactful acquisition since Curt Schilling seven winters ago, Theo Epstein stated that, “It seems like Adrian was meant to be a Red Sox, and we’re glad to make it happen.”

It was destined for a couple of reasons. The Red Sox have been coveting a power bat who is in the prime years of his career for at least two years, dating back to when Mark Teixeira signed with the Yankees. Gonzalez was the most logical person to fill that void, considering his age, his skills and the fact the Padres couldn’t keep him long term. The deal became even more inevitable a year ago, when Jed Hoyer become the Padres’ GM and Jason McLeod left the Red Sox to become his assistant.

McLeod was the leader in Boston’s draft room when they selected the three players that the Sox wound up sending to San Diego.

As Epstein said, “It was a case of all known commodities.”

Hoyer was equally candid about how much the familiarity helped to facilitate the trade.

“The knowledge was a big thing. Boston was clearly the most aggressive team in pursuing Adrian,” Hoyer said. “We really liked this package of players. From a talent standpoint, this was clearly the best package that we had. but the knowledge of the prospects also had a lot to do with it. Jason McLeod was the scouting director when all three of these guys were drafted. I know all three of these players. Perhaps the biggest anxiety you have with any trade is the unknown. You don’t know the players, you don’t know the personality. You don’t know the toughness. All of that is taken out of the equation in this trade for us.

“We know these guys. we know they have a great makeup. That’s a huge variable we don’t have to worry about. It lets you sleep a lot better at night knowing that ultimately the talent will take them as far as they’re going to go, but we know their mental toughness. Their makeup is going to be top notch. That’s a big problem when you make trades. You don’t usually have that knowledge. “

Hoyer also has great knowledge of Gonzalez, and he has good news for Red Sox fans.”I think he’s going to be unbelievable in Fenway Park. I think he’s going to be a monster at Fenway Park.”

Gonzalez also got things off on the right foot with Sox fans when he stated, “I’m ready to beat the Yanks.”

Keep in mind how heavily the rivaly has swung in favor of the Yankees since they signed Teixeira. In 2009, the Yankees won the World Series and the Red Sox lost in the Division Series. Last year, the Yankees advanced to Game 6 of the ALCS. The Red Sox didn’t make the postseason.

Gonzalez could go a long way toward leveling the playing field.

Epstein will arrive here in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. later today, so the Boston media will gather with him at some point this evening. More updates from him then on the blog and on redsox.com..

Like this:

LikeLoading...

Related

7 Comments

Yea, you can’t start out better than with that comment (“ready to beat the Yanks”). Sounds like he has had a little Yankee-take-down in him for a while, if his first dream was to be a Padre (assume he must be a local boy to SD) and second was to be a Red Sox.

I do feel for Beltre though. Wish there was a place for him our our team. Although to me, he always seemed a bit out of place as a Sox somehow — always seemed like an outside somehow. Too bad one of them couldn’t play short-stop — then you would have an incredible infield (batting wise). Or Pedey could go back to short, Youk to second, Beltre third. Let Lowrie be the utility guy? Anyone of them would be better than Lugo (LOL) — who we had there for how many years?

The Sox better sign the extension after dumping some potentially great talent…specifically the cream of the Sox crop. I hope this works out.
dgneubert -> Lugo is a FINE player. I’d put him up against any top notch player in the world such as Bugs Bunny or Elmer Fudd or Daffy Duck. Watch out :)

The latest trade forced the Sox to dump a lot of money and give away the cream of the Sox prospect crop so I HOPE they can get an extension otherwise we have a FIASCO on our hands. Imagine losing all that talent for one year of playing time. AH!
.
Lugo is also a fine player. Him against say Moe Howard or Larry Fine would really show the talent he has…or even Daffy Duck :)

Hey, DGN, how goes it?
I can see why we’d want Beltre in the lineup as well as Gonzo. Having both on board, along with Dustin and Youk, would have been nice. I wouldn’t fret too much for Beltre, though– he’ll get paid. Reportedly, he and the A’s had a deal framework in place. Even if that doesn’t happen, he’ll land on his feet with a handsome paycheck.
GO SOX!

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.